Odango...
by almostyourangel
Summary: Sorta Romeo and Juliet, I guess. At the end of their mission on Earth, Seiya just can't leave his Odango. So he finds a way to be with her forever... Usagi realizes a little too late the true extent of her feelings for him, and soon follows suit. ANGST.
1. Seiya's Final Act

How can one person make you hurt so much?  
  
Kou Seiya dropped his head onto his folded arms, narrowed eyes staring blankly out a rainswept window. How could such a bright, happy girl, make someone want to die? Honestly make someone hurt so bad, deep inside, in that one secret place, that they wanted to die? Make someone want to die... Yet not even be aware she was doing it?  
  
Tsukino Usagi was the world, the sun, and the moon all rolled into one. From the moment you met her you knew that you'd love her, and from the moment you loved her you knew that you'd lose her. Seiya had never thought he'd see that last moment--unfortunately, he had.  
  
Odango's boyfriend had come back, and suddenly Seiya was in the background again. How long had he worked for the right to stand next to her, how long had he fought for it? But then Mamoru came back, and Usagi hardly noticed Seiya any longer. And that hurt, 'cause...  
  
'Cause the truth was...  
  
Seiya loved Odango more than he loved anything.   
  
He'd always heard that when you loved someone, you knew it, you knew it from the second you saw them. He'd always heard that when you loved someone as much as he loved Odango, you loved them more than you loved yourself, you'd give your life for theirs willingly, you'd never let them go. And it was love, he knew it, onesided though it may be, because all those things were true.   
  
The second he passed her in the airport was forever frozen in time, at least in his mind. He knew from that second he loved her light, and within days he loved all of her, period. He'd heard the story of Mamoru and Usagi; they hated each other until they heard the story of their past lives. Screw past lives, the point of them are that they're in the *past*, over forever. Sure, it's the future too, but that's their next life. Does it matter, so much? Couldn't Seiya be happy for this lifetime, and Mamoru be happy next? Either way the guy'd have Usagi for two lifetimes. Somewhere, he knew that that wasn't fair, but if it could be like that, he'd give anything. He just couldn't understand why this lifetime had to be tied up, too. Odango was only sixteen...  
  
He *would* give his life, he'd tried before. He'd flung himself in front of Tin Nyako's blast without stopping to think about it, nor did he regret it. He'd do it over again, a thousand times until he died, if he had to. As long as Odango--the Odango that would never belong to him--would be safe, it would all be worth it.  
  
Yes, he'd do the same for his own princess, but it would never be out of the sheer love it would be for Usagi. He'd protect Kakkyu-hime for it was his duty and he loved her as his superior, but he'd protect Odango for love and nothing else without having to ponder it.   
  
Enough. Yes, he loved her. It didn't matter, she could never return it as more than a friend. He was to leave with Kakkyu, Taiki, and Yaten tomorrow, and he didn't think he could take it. Couldn't take saying goodbye to Odango, couldn't take watching her cuddling up to Mamoru as he departed, not even upset. Well--sure, she'd be *upset*, but not the way he wanted her to. He wanted her to fling herself to the ground, sob, beg him not to go. He'd always told Yaten and Taiki he hated to see Odango cry and would never want to make her do so, but now he did. He wanted to know he meant something more to her then someone who was here for a period of time, someone she spent time with and teased and flirted with. He thought of tomorrow, of seeing his angel's face as she bid him farewell forever...  
  
He couldn't do it, he just couldn't. He couldn't leave here, not forever. If he had just a little more time, he could mean something to her, something important. He'd think of never seeing Usagi's smile and his heart ripped in two; he just. couldn't. do. it.   
  
And he wouldn't.   
  
Slowly, nodding with resolve, he stood and walked past his room and into the bathroom. As he passed Yaten's room, the silverhaired male stood up. "Oi, Seiya-baka, are you ready to--Seiya? Where are you going?"   
  
The bathroom door shut.   
  
Taiki entered the hall. "Seiya? Kakkyu wants to speak to you about tomorrow's depart--"  
  
The bathroom door locked.  
  
Kakkyu followed Taiki, frowning. "Seiya? Daijoubu?" The medicine cabinet banged open and Seiya withdrew the razor. Five minutes later, he opened the door, wrists gushing blood. "I don't want...to be... separated from... from... From O-O-Odango... I'm going to stay... To stay here...and watch over her... Forever."   
  
  
Taiki's mouth fell open in shock.  
  
Seiya smiled weakly.  
  
Yaten turned away from the sight in horror.  
  
Seiya began to sway unsteadily.   
  
Kakkyu promptly fainted...  
  
And Seiya stepped back into the bathroom and gently closed the door before falling to the cold, unforgiving tiles, facefirst.  
  
  
  
  
  
Oi... I just killed my own god, so don't flame me, please. I'm sorry. It was a very angsty fic after contemplating slashing, and... Well, there's more. So, please, don't flame. I feel sucky enough. 


	2. Usagi's Goodbye

Usagi stared down at the shiny black coffin, all too quickly being covered in rich earth, in a numb shock. On her left, Kakkyu was sobbing quietly, beside her stood her two remaining Senshi with tears streaming silently down their drawn faces. On her right, Usagi's own senshi stood crying softly, and even Mamoru's face was filled with remorse. She turned away from the sight of her destined lover... Mamoru hated Seiya.  
  
*Had* hated Seiya... She forced herself to think it: *Seiya is dead.* As she looked around at literally thousands of people crying, she shook her head slowly and looked back down again. She couldn't understand why she wasn't crying; everyone else was and Usagi had been closer to him; much closer; than any of these fangirls that were crowding around the back of the concession. Why did she feel so emotionless, so...  
  
Dead?  
  
Finally, she reached a conclusion, and when she did, she wasn't sure if she wanted to laugh or cry.   
  
Usagi felt dead because when Seiya had died, a part of her had died as well. This revelation was quickly followed by another...  
  
She'd loved him.   
  
The emotion she'd been searching for finally came, increased by the fact that people were already walking away from the site, the grave not even full yet. She wanted to scream, How could you?! YOU SHOULDN'T BE HERE! IF YOU COULD LEAVE BEFORE IT'S OVER, YOU DIDN'T LOVE HIM! BUT I--I *DID*! The emotion came, yes--in a loud sob as Usagi flung herself on top of the nearly full grave, the men stopping from throwing another shovel of dirt only just in time.   
  
"Seiya," she sobbed, the cries racking her body heartwrenching to the most coldhearted observer. "Don't leave me!" Kakkyu had to turn away from the painfully pitiful sight the normally irrepressable blonde made, Taiki immediately stepping forward and placing a protective arm around his princess's shoulders and murmuring comforting words into her firery hair. Usagi's Senshi turned wide, questioning eye to their princess's future husband, waiting for him to take the initiative and step forward to help his girlfriend out of the dirt. To their surprise, his face was closed and his blue eyes were cold. And then, to their utter shock...  
  
He turned and walked away.  
  
Usagi could hear the hollow thud of Mamoru's footsteps hitting the ground as he walked away and remained where she wa.s. Nothing was the same any longer, not since he'd returned from the "dead". She hated to admit it, but by the time he'd come back she was all for Seiya. It wasn't something that could be helped, really, it was just a simple fact. Both of them knew it, though neither spoke it. And things would never be the same again.   
  
A good deal of time later, when Usagi had stood and brushed the dirt off her ankle length black skirt and apologized to Kakkyu and the other Senshi, she smiled somewhat bitterly. She hated to say it, but why Seiya? ...Why not Mamoru? Oh God, that was wrong.   
  
She knelt by Seiya's grave again. The others had wanted to stay, or to take her home, but she'd begged them to leave her alone. Haruka had been deadset against it, she thought Usagi'd do something stupid now.   
  
"Am I such a child, then?" She asked the blue sky, imagining it was Seiya. Everyone treated her like one, they all thought her incapable of protecting herself. She hated to remind them, but for the most part they'd been...Dead...During her biggest battles. She'd managed to defend herself before the rest came along, and she'd been a klutzy fourteen year old crybaby then. The only person who had seen the maturity in her, was Seiya. The others had been with her when she was silly and immature, so they were biased against any change that may have been bestowed upon Usagi. They thought her a silly little girl, still. But Seiya...  
  
Seiya hadn't been here for any of that. He'd come in and knew only the Usagi who was more or less an adult; an adult who'd seen her share of hardships in life; and respected and--dare she say it?--loved her for it. And now... She swallowed, turning away from the cold reminder that the gravestone proffered.  
  
Now that one person was gone.  
  
Slowly she stood, dusting off her dark skirt and looking into the oncoming storm clouds. At one time, the sight; the *promise* of the storm would have terrified her, but now she felt no fear. She could feel Seiya around her...Could practically feel his strong arms wrapped around her slight body. "Oh, Seiya..." She sighed at last. "It hurts...I'm hurting." She knelt again, then slowly laid against the cold dirt of Seiya's grave.   
  
***  
  
She vaguely recalled closing her eyes, but she definitely did *not* remember drifting off. There'd been a bright, red flash, she remembered hazily, but that didn't explain how she'd got home and into her room. Slowly she lifted her slightly muddy cheek off her unexplainably clean pillow and opened her bedroom door.   
  
"Mom?" She called, swallowing tightly as she heard how hoarse her voice sounded. All the sobbing, she assumed. Her mother appeared at the bottom of the stairs and glanced up sympathetically, if a little confused. "Hi, darling... When did you get back from Sei--When did you get back, dear?"   
  
"When did I..." Her voice trailed off as it became obvious that one of her friends had *not* taking pity on her and carried her home, leaving her in the care of her mother. So how on earth had she gotten home?   
  
"Um... A while ago, Mom."  
  
"How was the funeral, dear?" Her mother finally asked sympathetically, leaning against the banister and gazing up at her daughter, dark eyes soft.  
  
"It was...Beautiful," Usagi replied at last. She hadn't thought it was the slighest bit beautiful, but when the service was over everyone kept repeating it was as they shook each other's hands. She didn't see how anything involving the death of someone as truly beautiful, inwardly and outwardly, as Seiya, could be beautiful. Everyone had treated it like some damn party, laughing and joking and eating snacks when it was all over. She'd burned with indignance for her departed love.  
  
"That's nice, honey," Ikuko said gently as she regarded how tired Usagi looked. "Why don't you go get some rest? I'll bring you up some soup or something later, okay? Just rest."   
  
"Thanks, Mom." As she looked down at her mother, she felt a sudden rush of love for her, knowing somehow she'd never see this gentle hearted woman again. "Mom? I... I love you."  
  
Ikuko looked sort of surprised for a second, then she smiled. "I love you too, my poor little girl. You go get some sleep."   
  
"Okay... Goodbye, Mom. I love you." She repeated before walking into the bathroom and closing the door, not locking it. She sat down on the bathroom floor, holding the small bottle she'd retrieved from the medicine cabinet. "Seiya... I can't fight it. I can't live without you for the rest of my life, not with Mamo-ch...Mamoru..." She uncapped the bottle and shook all of it's contents into her shaking hand.   
  
*Kami-sama, Seiya, how could you slit your wrists? I'm terrified and all that's going to happen is I'll go to sleep and not wake up...* She swallowed the pills, one after another, until not even the powder at the bottom of the container remained. *I can't imagine the pain. Ai shiteru, koi. I'll be with you soon.*  
  
Fifteen minutes later displayed a groggy Usagi leaning against the wooden wall of the tub, a peaceful smile crowning her dreamy face. "Soon, Seiya..." She mumbled as her eyes began to close, a delicious warmth spreading throughout her. "I'll be with you soon."  
  
When Usagi's mother finally opened the door twenty moments later, it was already too late. Tsukino Usagi was gone. 


	3. Mamoru's True Colors

'Ello! *Bounces down a few steps behind Chibi Angel, waving* Sorry this is so dark, I was feelin' sorta psycho. ^+^ I'm so proud of myself... I've never seen a Seiya/Usa fic like this one, although I'm sure there's a few out there, which makes me happy. Lately the cliche fics have been annoying me. I'm toying with redoing Runaway, but I don't want to because the whole Usagi runs off to America thing is so bloody cliched and overdone, ne? Not that they're not done! Whatever, read on. ^^  
  
  
  
"U...Usagi?" Aino Minako's lips formed the word slowly, her sky blue eyes soon filling with the horror and pain that was reflected in the eyes of her fellow Senshi. "Not Usagi, too..." She finally sobbed. "Not her."  
  
Across the room, Hino Rei fell to her knees and stared straight in front of her, her dark eyes blank. "U...Usagi..." Slowly she sank down further, her lower lip trembling as she recalled the bright smile and happy giggle of her best friend.  
  
To her left Kino Makoto pounded the wall with her fist, tears streaming out of her dark jade eyes. She never spoke a word, her mind too filled with the image of golden hair and blue eyes.   
  
Finally there was Mizuno Ami. Her dark blue eyes were shadowed as she stared at her slim white hands, trying not to think of Usagi being dead. Finally she raised her eyes to see how Mamoru was, and her gasp of shock brought all female eyes to her face before following her gaze.  
  
"M-Mamoru?" Minako stuttered finally, her eyes wide and slightly accusing. He turned his cool dark blue stare on her, and his eyes were cynical, indifferent, maybe even slightly bored.   
"What?"  
  
There was a long pause, an awkward silence seeping into the still room. Finally Makoto burst out with an exclamation, eyes fiery with rage. "What's WRONG with you?" She demanded, charging over to Mamoru and grasping him by his shirt collar. "How the hell can you stand there so indifferently? Your GIRLFRIEND is DEAD, Mamoru-baka! The LOVE of your worthless LIFE! How can you STAND there like that?" She raged on, shaking his collar.   
  
They'd all expected Mamoru to be deeply apologetic; deep down they'd all believed he was just shocked into denial. Ami didn't think that anyone of them had expected him to do what he did...  
  
He shoved Makoto, hard, knocking her to the ground. "Fuck you." He spat down at her, eyes burning with a cold blue fire. "Fuck you, Makoto, don't tell me how the fuck to feel." He stood glaring down at her on the floor for a minute, her being too shocked to move, then finally spat on her and stalked out of the room. They all stood there--or layed there--for a moment, stunned. Finally they all jumped and moved to help Makoto up and to wipe the saliva off with a Kleenex. "Daijoubu?" One asked the shaken brunette in concern.  
  
"Hai," She replied shakily, eyes trained on the door. "What could have made him act like that, Ami? How could he not care?" Ami shook her head, unable to answer. None of the inner Senshi could, in fact. And it was precisely the word Inner before the word Senshi that made Angel type the following sentence.  
  
"He doesn't even love her anymore." Four heads snapped around to face the door's second room. A tall blonde resided against the doorjam, cobalt eyes rimmed with red.   
  
"Haruka?" Rei asked at last, disbelief in her voice. "What are you doing here?"  
  
"Koneko was my friend too, Rei..." Tenou Haruka replied, cringing as her voice cracked on Koneko. She moved into the room more, casting her glance over all four of them one at a time.   
  
They digested this in silence before Ami ventured, "What did you say when you were coming in?"  
  
"It's simple enough," Haruka said quietly, sitting in a chair and rubbing her eyes. "He doesn't love her; she didn't love him." Again, there was a long pause, until finally someone asked who Usagi *did* love, then.   
  
"Are you so blind?" The blonde replied, leaning back in her chair and wiping away a very out of character tear. Her teeth gritted together as she spat out the words. "Seiya. Kou."  
  
  
  
  
***  
  
Usagi was warm.  
  
She felt as though she was being encircled in the strong arms of someone she trusted and loved. She tried to force open her eyes, but was drowsy and hazed and couldn't quite seem to do it. "Seiya," she managed to get out. "I want Seiya..." The hold tightened, gently, and a bright red light flashed.   
  
"Oh, Odango..." A voice sighed, brushing long golden strands off Usagi's dreamily happy face. "Why did you have to do this? You had so much to live for..." She knew the voice; she felt safe. Usagi simply cuddled back into the protective arms, still feeling that delicious warmth. "Ai shiteru," she murmured, then could speak no more. Instead, she just smiled and smiled and smiled as she drifted away again. Vaguely she could hear two voices.  
  
"It wasn't her time, she can't stay here."  
  
"She doesn't want to go back; she wants me, weren't you listening?" That familiar voice argued in that same stubborn tone.  
  
"It wasn't her time." Quit saying that, Usagi wanted to beg. She tried to open her mouth but couldn't. She thought maybe she could open her eyes but it seemed like too great a task just yet, so she remained still and just listened.  
  
"Don't say that, she wants to be here with me. I won't let you take her."  
  
"It wasn't--"  
  
"IIE!" The voice cracked like a whip. "She stays. Otherwise, you send us both back--together. No more of this Mammoth-chan business." Mentally, Usagi smiled and nodded in agreement.  
  
"SEIya..." What? Seiya? Where? Usagi forced her eyes open; it was hard, but if Seiya was here, she was going to see him and damned if they could stop her.   
  
"Odango?" Slowly she became aware of two hazy outlines, the darkhaired one was kneeling beside her.   
  
"Seiya?"  
  
"Hai," he replied grimly, kissing her cheek gently and turning his head to stare pointedly at the other figure. Usagi squinted, then stopped, then squinted again. Finally, the other came into focus, just as it spoke again.  
  
"*It was not her time.* She must go ba--"  
  
"Mother?" 


	4. Kakkyu Comes Through

E'o..  
  
No idea what's really happening in this story. Each time I sit down to write, I just type with no idea of what's gonna happen, and ideas just come along the way. So, please forgive me if it's sorta ~_~, hai? ^_^v  
  
  
  
  
An hour and one tearful reunion later found Usagi sleeping blissfully in Seiya's arms. He slept, too, his head tilted down and resting on her golden head. Queen Serenity watched the two, trying to work out in her head how two people who so obviously could never be could look so... *Right* together. They looked adorable, really, she reasoned as she reached down to smooth Usagi's hair and touch Seiya's cheek. And Endymion really *hadn't* been treating her daughter properly lately--  
  
No! She mustn't think that way, this was the way things had to be.  
  
Still, they looked so happy...  
  
"I'm sorry, darling," she murmured to the angelic face of her sleeping daughter. "I don't want to have to do this." Slowly she raised the mystical wand she held in her hand, mouth forming the words to send Usagi back to her own time...Without Seiya.  
  
"*Stop!*" Shocked, she turned, letting the wand drop into the mists swirling around her feet. A figure that was slight but somehow managed to look tall and intimidating stood, the cloudy mist curling in tendrils around her. Serenity couldn't see the woman's face, but there was something vaguely familiar about her silhouette. The figure stepped forward and a stray beam of light highlighted her.  
  
"Kakkyu?" The silverhaired queen gasped, a delicate hand rising to conceal her open mouth.   
  
"Serenity," Kakkyu answered, sweeping the slightest curtsy.   
  
"D-demo--what are you *doing* here?" She questioned faintly at last, withdrawing her hand and returning the light bow.   
  
"Stopping you from making a big mistake!" The other replied, her tone cold. There was no love lost between the two royals. Their rivalry dated back to their early years in charm school together; when Queen Serenity told the other Princess' that Kakkyu had Royal Cooties and Kakkyu retaliated by hiding various reptiles and rodents in the satin sheets of Serenity's fourposter bed.  
  
"Mistake, no." Serenity responded, her voice equally chilly. "I'm fixing where your *idiot* Senshi went wrong!" Even at a distance she could see Kakkyu's red eyes grow icy before turning hot with fiery rage, but she didn't back down.  
  
"If you send Usagi back even Seiya's *soul* will die. I'm not going to let you do that."  
  
Serenity snorted. "I don't mean to be mean because I normally like people. But as this boy belongs to you, I have to say... I DON'T CARE what happens to him. And I'd *love* to see you stop me." Gracefully she bent, scooping the wand up in her hand and aiming it towards the sky again. "Cosmic Moon--Nani?!" The words were cut off as a small but noteable weight charged into her, sending the moonwand flying into the mists again. As Serenity remained on the ground, stunned, Kakkyu scrambled to her feet and grabbed it, quickly unscrewing the Silver Imperium Crystal from it's longstanding position in the center of the metallic crescent moon. She snapped her fingers, long red nails flashing, and it slowly faded away, recognizing the power of a good royal. She tossed the wand in front of the fallen Queen, who was still staring at the swirling ground in confusion. Stooping delicately, the flamehaired girl kissed the foreheads of the sleeping couple and rose, starting to fade and taking the crystal with her.   
  
"Take care, my darling," She whispered, eyes on Seiya's figure. "Don't let yourself be separated from her..."  
  
Queen Serenity's eyes focused on the wand and realized the crystal she protected with her life, silver eyes widening angrily. "Kakkyu, RETURN!" She ordered in her most commanding voice, but it was to no avail. The last thing she heard before Kakkyu disappeared entirely was the woman's gentle mocking laughter. She cast the angry eyes at the two before her and sighed, her anger melting away at their innocently happy faces.  
  
"Pluto is going to kill me." 


	5. Was it a Vision, or a Waking Dream..

"…resurrection, resurrection…" Queen Serenity traced a long, slender finger down over the crumbling pages of the ratty spell-book yet again, her usually calm silver eyes filling with frustration. "Where in God's name is it!" It wasn't in between 'resuscitate' or 'retain'[A/N: Please give me a break, my dictionary isn't any good. -.- ^^;;], as it should have been. Just like it hadn't been in between 'resuscitate' or 'retain' the last four times she'd checked.

Finally, Serenity found it on a ripped out page, stuck between two others in the back of the book. It figured. "Resurrection!" She crowed triumphantly, raising the yellowing paper upwards. Moments later, the spell cast, she sat back to await the spell's effects. She didn't have to wait long, however, because almost immediately the ground began to shake, a deafening roar filling the air. "I'm sorry, daughter…" She murmured almost sadly, though her eyes glowed with satisfaction as she watched the reddened sky above her tear in two. "It's for the good of the kingdom…Yes, the good of the kingdom."

She could not tear her eyes away from the breathtaking scene, unable to hold back a delighted smirk as a familiar scream echoed out. "Ta-ta, Seiya dear…"

~*~*~*~

Usagi was lying in Seiya's arms, more content then she'd been in as long as she could remember. "Do you think we'll always be this happy…" She murmured to him, smiling a bit as he traced a strawberry along her lips and parting them rather enticingly to accept the fruit.

"Of course, Odango," He smirked down, leaning over her. "After all, this _is _heaven, right? Or something like it…" He bent over her, brushing a feather light kiss to her soft pink mouth. She moaned softly and pulled him closer, entangling her fingers into the long black strands of his hair, her mewling cries muffled by his mouth as his hand slipped down and lightly played with her breast.

Their kisses had just begun to grow more intense when the ground beneath them shook, and for a moment Usagi thought hazily that if the earth moved, Seiya certainly _had _to be her true match, but then a deafening roar filled the air and her blackhaired companion tore away.

"What _is _that?!"

"I don't know! Could it be a—" Usagi never finished her words as a silver mist encased her, swirling faster and faster, her long white and gold dress falling away to expose her body, clad in only silky white ribbons. Horrified, she clapped her arms over her chest. "Seiya, what—" The fog around her grew heavier and heavier until she could feel it weighing her down. "_Seiya_!"

The anguished scream tore apart the night, the strange mist all gathering together around her until Seiya could no longer see her, suddenly lunging upwards and then shooting downwards, ripping through the ground and disappearing with one more tortured scream of his name.

"Odango!?" He leapt to his feet, pushing through a bit of lingering fog and searching desperately for those ever-familiar blonde meatballs, growing more and more frantic as time went on. Finally, he sank to his knees in despair, sobbing harder then he ever had before.

As the racking cries slowly died down, laughter echoed out, quiet at first, then growing louder and louder, the most mocking and infuriating laughter he'd ever heard.

But Seiya recognized that laugh, he knew it well…And he'd _never _heard it sounding as such. "S-Serenity?" He gasped out, quickly wiping his forearm along his soaked face. The laughter grew almost crazed.

"You'll never have her back!" A maniacal, barely recognizable voice cackled at last. "She cannot die now, I've fixed it as such! Say goodbye to her now…And then spend the rest of your days in loneliness." It was a hiss, something he would never have thought Queen Serenity capable of.

All the more bonechilling because it was at his expense.

~*~*~*~

Usagi landed with a thud on her bedroom floor seconds later, curled into a little ball and frozen, slowly gaining the courage to open her eyes and sit up a moment later.

She screamed.

A/N: There's more, if you wish to continue; the ending, in fact. But you might prefer to just leave this as the ending, because it works, too…The other is almost alternate. 

It's _dark, _people! ^^; I actually scared myself while writing it. Everyone's asleep, so I'm still a bit frightened. Read on, at your own decision.


	6. Fled is That Music:--Do I wake or sleep?

~*~*~*~

"Usagi? Is that you?" The door clicked open quietly, cautiously, and Ikuko peered round it, eyes widening a bit at her daughter's position on the floor. "Hi, darling…" She murmured softly, pushing the door open the rest of the way and stepping inside, setting a tray down on a small table and helping her frail daughter back to her feet. "Come on sweetie, let's get you back into bed…" 

Once the small blonde was settled amidst her crescent-moon patterned sheets and coverlets, her mother brought the tray she'd been carrying over to her. "Here, darling, take your pills." A variety of pills were set in front of her, along with a glass of water, and numbly Usagi placed them in her mouth one by one and swallowed. A bowl of soup was pushed towards her. "Here, baby, you eat this, and then Mommy will come back and take the tray back, alright? You just call if you need anything." Ikuko spoke as if she was talking to a much younger child, smoothing Usagi's unkempt hair before stepping away and leaving the room, closing the door quietly behind her.

"How is she?" Her husband asked solemnly, slowly closing his arms around her.

"Poor darling…She just…hasn't been the same, since Seiya died. I know the doctors say she'll recover someday…But it's been two years. When is this going to stop…When is my poor baby going to be able to live again?"

~*~*~*~

Outside the Tsukino residence, a small group of girls paused on their way home from school, just gazing silently at the house for a long moment.

"You know…" A redhead said finally, holding the skirt of her school uniform down so that the wind wouldn't blow it upwards. "I hear that she went a little crazy…After Kou-sama died." She spoke in a hushed whisper, as though the crazy Tsukino girl that lived in there could hear her.

"Yeah! I even hear she talks to herself as if he's there with her…Even when she's alone in the room." The three girls exchanged mildly frightened looks, spooked by the thought in a delicious, scare-yourself sort of way. 

"Well…I heard…" The quieter of the three began awkwardly, blushing as she tugged at the vest of her uniform. "They say that she'll touch herself…As if she and Kou-sama were, well…"

The other two digested this tidbit with surprise and near-malicious glee. "Really?"

"Yes, I heard it from Shingo. He says that sometimes at night he can hear her, ano, moaning, right through the wall."

"Wow…I guess she's really crazy."

"That's what they say…" They began to walk again, falling silent and reflecting. 

"She's so strange…"

~*~*~*~ 

Usagi listened to the hushed conversation outside her window with unnaturally sensitive ears, scoffing, stirring a spoon through her untouched soup. "They don't know what they're talking about, do they, Seiya?" She demanded angrily of her empty room. "They have no idea. They're just jealous. They are!" Slowly the door creaked open and her mother peered in, a frightened look on her face.

"Usagi…Who are you talking to?" She asked softly.

"Shut up!" The bowl of soup was flung at the door in sudden rage, fury written across the weak blonde's face. "QUIT LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT! YOU DON'T KNOW HIM! YOU DON'T KNOW _US_! NOBODY UNDERSTANDS! Seiya and I _love _each other, and I'm tired of you standing in our way!"

Blinded with hatred, she saw only Queen Serenity, not the tired, gentle woman who'd put up with so much over the past few years, fumbling under her pillow and withdrawing a shiny metal object.

~*~*~*~

Three shots ran out, Usagi watching with grim satisfaction as the bodies of her parents and brother hit the floor one by one. Smirking, she raised the gun again, this time resting the barrel against her own temple. 

"Ai shiteru, Sei-chan," She singsonged sweetly as she pulled the trigger.

"…"

Moments later, she collapsed to her knees, pressing a hand to the gushing wound in her head, recalling the words she'd heard in her last dream.

"She cannot die now, I've fixed it as such…"

Death wasn't coming. Death would never come.

She knew it, as blood ran down her hand, as she looked from prone body to prone body, as she smelled the stench of death waft slowly though the air. 

"I hate you, Mother!" She screamed at the ceiling in anguish. "I _hate _you!"

"She just hasn't been the same since Seiya died…" 

_"I heard that she went a little crazy, after Kou-sama died…"_

_"Wow…I guess she's really crazy."_

"That's what they say…" 

"_She's so strange_…"

Was it all a dream, then? What in the name of God!? Was she even truly Sailor Moon, or was that all a result of her "craziness", too?! Was she really the Moon Princess? It sounded so ludicrous, suddenly…

But if it was all dreamed up, shouldn't she be dead…?

Usagi reached up and pressed her hand to the gun wound again, then pulled it away and looked at it.

…No blood…

There was no wound.

_//Was it a vision, or a waking dream?_

_Fled is that music:—Do I wake or sleep?_//

                                                -John Keats.

…Well, that's the end, folks…*Peers around her warily* I'm sure few of you expected it. Please review, and, er…Can someone hug me? ^^:;; Chibi Angel's frightened, that's all…*Coughs* No flames, pleaaaase.. 


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